Skrillex Interview: He's losing money with the Full Flex Express Tour

Found this article from the Toronto Sun via Reddit where Skrillex talked about his Full Flex Express tour:

"I'm making no money on this tour," claims Skrillex — born Sonny Moore — in an exclusive national interview. "I'm losing money to do it. I'm doing it because it's just a fun thing to do.

The Full Flex Express train also has a special studio car:

"We have a studio car. And we're all musicians. So we're just going to be jamming and listening to music, getting to know one another, connecting and building the community of the Full Flex Express... I wish we had a bigger train. That's next year. If we do well, we can get a bigger train, and expand and do stuff. But for now we're punk-rocking it, you know.”

I hope Skrillex creates a special video tour diary because it sounds like one of the best train trips ever. It will be pretty amazing if this cross Canada train ride creates some amazing music collaborations as well.

The more stuff I read about Skrillex the more I realize that money isn't really an important factor for him as artistic integrity and independence. I saw that first hand when Skrillex was as enthusiastic to play infront of 200ish people at Ritual as he was pulling the much bigger dollars doing the same thing earlier in the night infront of tens of thousands.

(Source: Toronto Sun)

The Atlantic's Take on EDM

There's way too many references to Skrillex contained in the article but otherwise it was a really good read. The way a lot of people have dismissed EDM is actually following a long history of knee-jerk denunciations of other genres that eventually blew up like Jazz and Rock N' Roll.

(Source: The Atlantic)

Getting to know The M Machine

After playing a very memorable set a few weeks ago at Barrymore's as part of the Language Tour, The M Machine have been active on the interwebs starting with this interview by Purevolume.

The M Machine also did a AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the EDM Production subreddit on Reddit which is a must read for all aspiring producers:

I think there is always going to be a lot of producers just trying to do what's "in" at the moment, mimicking the top dudes, which is obviously not very conducive to making a name for yourself. That said, there are a lot of producers right now that absolutely have created something unique. Just to name a few: gesaffelstein, koan sound, siriusmo, and bingo players all have their own unique sound. We try to create music that we feel is honest and musical. We put a lot of emphasis on melody and harmony, and basically writing a song, not just another club track that will be forgotten in 3 months.

They say a lot more so check it out over at Reddit.

How about some TRANCE?

It's been a while since I did this but at least I've saved it until there were a few worthy tunes to showcase like these below:

Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford - On My Way To Heaven (Official Music Video). This is my favourite A&B tune that I've heard from them in a while.

Leon Bolier - US. After releasing tracks "You" and "Me", "US" is the final release from the triology. Leon Bolier is a monster behind the decks and this track just helps to fuel the fire. Can't wait to see him again whenever he lands in this part of the world.

Sunny Lax - Hattori Hanzo (Original Mix). First heard this on Tydi's Global Soundsystem podcast and it really blew my socks off. It's deep, got a strong beat, and takes me on a journey. Big fan of this one.

John O'Callaghan - Earth2Self (Original Mix). What can I say that hasn't already been said about JOC? He's just one of my favourite DJs and this track is just another great tune to add under his belt. This track is guarranteed to be a favourite on the dance floor when he drops it live this August at Circus in Montreal.

Sean Tyas & Giuseppe Ottaviani - Arcobaleno (Original Mix). Fast forward to 0:59 and start enjoying that thumping bass that I love so much. I recently checked out a live set of Ottaviani thanks to be-at.tv when he played at Ministry of Sound and it really impressed me. He's one of those DJs that I'd go on a road trip to check out live. 

Gareth Emery pulls out of Global Gathering UK and causes a PR storm

Gareth Emery's management team has decided to pull Gareth Emery out of the upcoming Global Gathering festival in the UK due to a billing conflict. Apparently the conflict was between Global Gathering and Ferry Corsten/Gareth Emery as to who would receive second billing on the 'Godskitchen' stage. When the compromised solution was not agreed upon it was Gareth Emery's team that decided to pull out Gareth from the festival entirely when their demands were not met.

What makes this a public relations problem for Gareth is because Ferry Corsten's team was also affected by the same billing issue but according to Global Gathering they were willing to compromise in the interest of the fans:

We would also like to further point out that the same billing issue was also true of Ferry Corsten's management, who have acted completely professionally throughout this problem and have offered up solutions in the interest of his fans.

You can read the official Global Gathering Press Release here via Trance Addict Forums.

Here's Gareth Emery's management press release.

And finally here's Gareth Emery himself explaining his side of the story.